Hello friends, family, and strangers (I flatter myself)! I am a recently-graduated girl finding my way in the "real world" (apparently, I've been floating around the fake world for the past two decades). Many of my friends' "real world"s consist of cubicles, nine-to-fives, marriage, babies, and other such grown-up things. My real world looks a little different. Yes, I still get up and go to work every morning, same as they do. But instead of battling fax machines, computer programs, disgruntled spouses and dirty diapers, I arm myself against a legion of 14-year-old boys. Well, 83 of them to be exact. You see, I teach 8th-grade boys' Science in an inner-city, high-poverty school. What it is not: glamorous, prestigious, boring. What it is: humorous, heartbreaking, and the most challenging thing I will ever do.

The stories I tell and the people I describe are real; you can't make this stuff up. If you are new to my blog, I hope you'll start at the beginning and fall in love with its characters, just as I have.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

TGIF?

My youngest sister came to visit this weekend and accompanied me to school on Friday. Out of all my sisters, she probably resembles me the most. As I've mentioned before, my kids think that all white females with blonde hair between the ages of 10 and 50 are my identical twins, so I couldn't wait to see what they thought of my actual, real-life mini me.

When the bell rang, I had my sister put on my lanyard and stand at my door to greet the students as I usually do. I sat behind my desk with a clear view of the entrance and watched as EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of my students either:

a) brushed by her without noticing anything was different
b) gave her "dap" and greeted her "Hey, Ms. M.", or
c) hugged her and wished her "Good mornin,' M."

When they rounded the corner and saw me sitting behind my desk, they'd all do the exact same double-take and say something along the lines of, "SHIT!! That's freakin' me out! I didn't even notice that ain't you! I thought you had some type of facial surgery or you be puttin' on too much makeup today or SOMETHIN.'" It was hilarious. A few kids continued to get the two of us confused even after they knew that she was there. "Mann, y'all even TALK the exact same. You STAND the exact same. 'Cept for she be 18 and Imma bout to hit that up. Tell her I said, 'wassup.' She only in high school and I'm finna be in high school so that's right about my age range."

Most of the school day was spent in a two and a half hour pep rally to get us in the spirit for our EOG tests. Among other things, it consisted of:

1) A skype session with Drake. Yes, as in Drake.*
2) Two of my boys dancing in front of the entire 8th grade to "Turnt Up"* while taking off their shirts and grinding.
3) A rap song performed by Da'Juan and Rashee (among others) to Lil' Wayne's "Roger That." The best part? When one girl got on the mic and declared that "If you can't roger this--then roger THAT!" while turning around and grabbing her butt.
4) The entire girls' bleachers twirkin* in synch to "She Got a Donk."*
5) Watching a security guard get punched in the face by a student (who, by the way, was later at lunch sitting down and laughing with friends).
6) Doing the Cupid Shuffle in front of the school.
7) Seeing a bunch of pro football players get DOMINATED in a shoot-out by my kids.

You know, just another typical work day.

*If you don't know what I'm referring to here, you MIGHT be culturally irrelevant at RMS. Sorry to ruin your day. You can't all be as hood as me.
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